Losing 110 Pounds in One Year

Rishi Lost 110 Pounds in One Year

Rishi had been overweight all his life until age 25. Both his parents were also overweight. When he was in his early 20's he watched his father undergo triple bypass surgery. But at this time he was still not worried about his own obesity. He continued to eat lots of junk food and did not exercise. It was only when he turned 25 and got a serious health scare that he decided to change his lifestyle. 

He ended up in the emergency ward of the hospital and was diagnosed with high blood pressure and high cholesterol. He was given medications to lower these readings. At that point he decided to embark on a journey towards better health. He started walking daily and gave up sugar and fried foods. He made vegetables, lentils and fruits the mainstay of his daily meals. Within one year he had lost 110 pounds! 

Rishi has maintained his health for over a decade now! He has written a detailed story about his life before and after losing weight. It's very motivational, check it out at Weight Loss Glory. 

Rishi at 265 pounds

One Year Later, Rishi at 155 pounds

New Year - New Inspiration to Lose Weight!

Mike after extreme weight loss

Hi everyone, I haven't posted any stories for quite a while. But wanted to get back to it and here is a very joyous and inspirational video to help you in your New Year's resolutions and motivation!

Mike lost over 350 pounds. He lost it in a very short time (in his first 17 months of weight loss, he lost 330 pounds). He was obese all his young life but at the age of 20 a big switch went off (after a car accident) and he completely transformed his lifestyle.



Mike didn't follow any specific diet. He just started eating what he knew was healthy (and not processed food) and began walking... Check out this very inspirational two minute video of his before and after pics;

 He provides this FAQ on his youtube video page;

  1) What diet plan did you do?

I didn't follow any "mainstream diet". I just used common sense and consumed things that are widely accepted as healthy like fruits and vegetables, whole grains (oats, not processed whole grains like in cereals), lean sources of protein such as fish and poultry and overall cut out junk food and soda entirely--yes, cold turkey. Eat less calories than you burn and you WILL lose weight and make it a habit to look at the nutritional facts of food that you eat, being educated is over half the battle. 

 2) What kind of training did you do?

I didn't have access to a gym or a trainer so again I did what instinctively came natural and walked everywhere. I skipped going out to eat with my friends to go for a walk and met up with them after and I was that much better off for it. I walked everyday no matter what, adding distance as the walk got easier. After I lost the bulk of the weight I took up lifting weights in hopes to build muscle mass and fill out my skin. 

3) What surgeries did you have done/do you have any problems with loose skin??

I did not have any bypass or gastric surgery or any weight loss surgery at all for that matter. I lost all the weight entirely on my own. Naturally I have loose skin all over my body. After losing the bulk of the weight I had man boobs and a very large skirt of skin which I was fortunate enough to have removed by surgery and that was covered by my medical insurance. Mine was a severe case, this is not typical from what I hear. 

He also has a highly recommended longer video detailing his weight loss journey here. Mike has managed to keep the weight off for years now and only gets happier and fitter each year. Amazing feat and change of life!

Three Key Healthy Foods to Eat More of..

In this quick and to-the-point video the beautiful nutritionist suggests we eat some of these three incredibly healthy foods each day. They are leafy greens, sea vegetables and flaxseeds. Have you had some of at least one of these foods today?

I had some steamed spinach with my scrambled eggs this morning, but this video reminded me that I need to stock up on some dried seaweed (my son loves it and it makes a great school lunch snack).

Going From XXXXL to Medium Size Shirt

Shawn Before Losing 140 pounds

At 205 pounds (after losing 140 pounds)

Shawn used to wear an XXXXL (4XL) shirt but now wears a medium size shirt. He's lost 140 pounds. It took him just six months to lose the first one hundred pounds. Another thirty pounds got pounded away by the end of the first year - in Janurary 2010. He got down to under two hundred pounds at one point soon after but is now wavering at a pretty happy 220 or so..

Shawn lost his weight by counting calories. He allows himself cheat days and junk food on a regular basis but says the key is to keep within your calories for most days. His exercise of choice is basketball and the gym.

He started a blog - 344Pounds.com - when he first set out to lose the weight. He sent the 'before' pic and link to all his friends and relatives. This was embarrassing for him but he felt it would be pivotal in motivating him to stick to his goal.

Check out his site, he has some very inspiring posts including some great before and after pics and his first year weekly weight loss progress chart.

There are a lot of people who like to lose weight by counting calories. I've always thought this weight loss method appeals more to women than men. (Weight Watchers is based on this, and seems to be much more popular with women than men, see some success stories on this site about Weight Watchers...) My personal opinion is that whether this is a successful long-term strategy depends a lot on the type of personality you have. For example, in my case, I'm too much of a rebel type, I could never stick to this kind of detailed regiment of watching my calorie consumption all the time. I also think you'd be much more prone to experience hunger and discomfort if you are keeping to your calorie count, but it is based on foods that are not filling and nutritional. My personal preferred route is just to stick to exceptionally healthy foods most of the time. I believe you can eat a great deal of deliciously cooked vegetables, beans and brown rice, never feel hungry and consistently lose weight. I'm the type who would much rather educate myself on the healthiest foods and focus on eating those rather than on counting calories. (See some great info about healthy food here. )

But different methods work better for different people. Congrats to Shawn! Please visit his site.

Swimming to Lose Weight - 100 Pounds Lighter Now

Matthew at Start of Weight Loss

Matthew after losing 100 pounds

Matthew weighed 469 pounds about five months ago. He's lost an incredible 104 pounds since then. He still wants to lose another 150 pounds but realizes this may take quite a bit longer.

Matthew did this by completely overhauling his diet and exercising almost every day.

His exercise of choice is swimming and his almost daily schedule includes 225 yards easy freestyle, 100 free sprint, 50 easy free, 100 butterfly sprint, 75 easy free, 100 backstroke sprint, 50 easy, 100 sprint free and 200 more yards to cool down.

I'm not sure what this means in terms of mileage and whether it would be something like a one hour workout or much more? (Please let me know in the comments).

He's limited animal products to less than 20% of his daily diet. He also cut out all sodas and now just drinks water. He's got a really good suggestion about adding nutritional yeast to your diet. Nutritional yeast has no sodium or gluten and is loaded with B vitamins. One of his favorite new meals is to use premade wheat crust, throw some tomato sauce and olive oil on it, pile it high with vegetables and then liberally top it with nutritional yeast. Bake it and you have a very nutritious pizza. He also recommends using nutritional yeast as a spaghetti sauce topper.

Congrats to you Matthew! Hope we hear another progress report soon!

Dinner on Main Street

Slickity Jim's at 19th and Main, Vancouver, Canada

I guess almost every city has a Main street. I live really close to Main and 19th, in Vancouver, Canada. About once a week I go have dinner at a nearby diner.

On my way there, I pass by two international fast food joints, one for pizza and one for fried chicken. The meals at the Slickity Jim's diner cost a couple of bucks more, but the food is so much tastier. (Not to mention that the seating and lighting/music atmosphere is infinitely nicer).

One neat thing about this place is that there's a surprise item on the menu. If you order it, (the Abstract Notion) then you are giving the chef complete discretion as to what to whip up for your dinner.

I almost always order this surprise (though i ask for gluten free..).

So the other day I did my first restaurant 'flash food' photo. I know it's very poor quality and doesn't give you an idea of the wonderful meal I enjoyed. The meal consisted of a grilled chicken breast (which was then quickly fried in an apricot, clove, herb barbecue sauce) a mixed brown rice (with olive oil, red onions, apple and hazelnuts) a boiled egg and pear and avocado slices.

It was a delicious and very filling meal but I'm quite sure it was under 700 calories. (The chef guessed less than 650 calories).

So this place is tiny, and easy to miss if you are walking by. I wonder how many of the people eating their deep fried factory chicken/deep crust gluten pizza at the fast food joints nearby even realize that this place exists as a startlingly better option..

If you have a favorite regular restaurant in your city, would love to hear about it below!

Obese to Super Fit in One Year

Brian at 345 pounds

Brian at 175 pounds

Thanks much to Brian for submitting his story. Brian weighed 345 pounds in April of last year. Today he weighs 175 pounds! It's an amazing achievement. 

To start off, i can't ever remember where weight wasn't an issue for me. I've always been bigger, overweight, doctors and parents telling me that i should look towards losing weight. For whatever reason, i didn't think it was that serious. 

Even as a bigger kid, i was able to be active in sports, fit myself (and stomach) into desks and chairs, practically living life as a "normal" person. My parents often reminded me that i am still gaining weight and look bigger. Just as every other overweight person who is in denial, i never stepped on a scale unless it was required through something like a physical at the doctor's office. 

The day came that i realized that as much as i tried to fool myself, i could no longer consider my weight as normal. I stepped onto the balance board for Wii Fit, a game designed for people to lose weight, only to come to the conclusion that i was not allowed to play the game because i surpassed the 330lb limit that is designed by the software. Not being able to play a video game, now that is definitely NOT normal. 

This event triggered my journey towards weight loss. In April of 2011, i took the first steps in losing weight by finally addressing the major cause towards my weight, my diet. I began researching and looking and obsessing about how to lose weight, weight loss success stories, and the keys to losing weight. I began to change my diet and starting to seriously start looking at calories, nutrition, and activity. I started pushing myself towards taking things one step at a time with the simple goal of wanting to become "normal". 

At this point in time, i have lost close to 170lbs. I still have some more work to do but a lot of my focus has now shifted towards keeping my fitness up while trying to build muscle and tone up. I want to continue to challenge myself, continue to push myself in doing things i never dreamed of doing, leading me to make the decision to challenge myself through entering a half marathon. 

I recently submitted a brief story about my weight loss story as well as the struggles of one of my closest family members and friends to attack the challenge of this half marathon together. My essay was selected as a finalist and i need some help for people to vote for my essay to make this dream happen! 

Please vote for my essay as it truly means a lot to me! (Update: Essay contest has closed now..)

Thanks!